SUPPLYING WHAT IS LACKING
Jim Renton
Luke 7: 44-46; 1 Samuel 25: 18, 19, 23, 24, 32, 33; 1 Corinthians 16: 15-18
I would like to say a few words about supplying what is lacking. In the last verses we read it is persons who supplied ‘what was lacking on your part’, and that is a privilege open to us as believers at the present time to supply what is lacking. You look around the world today – the world that belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ – He has rights in it, but they are denied Him. There is a lack of acknowledgement of the rights of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a great need for each one of us to supply what is lacking. In principle the assembly at the present time supplies what is lacking. Well, I would like to encourage each one of us to be set to supply for Him what is lacking around us.
You find in this first scripture a tremendous lack in the Pharisee’s house. There is what he did not do: he ought to have done it, but he did not do it. He may have boasted about having the Lord in his house, he may have attached the Lord’s Name to his house, but think of the cold indifference that was in that house. There was no appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ in that house. There was a tremendous lack – what barrenness, what coldness! It was not exactly that there was opposition, but there was just indifference – no regard for the Person that was in it.
You think of mere profession around us, think of what the Lord’s Name is attached to in the sense of profession, inviting the Lord into his house but having no regard for Him personally, and the very great lack was evident in this house. But Luke tells us that, “a woman in the city, who was a sinner, and knew that he was sitting at meat in the house of the Pharisee, having taken an alabaster box of myrrh, and standing at his feet behind him weeping, began to wash his feet with tears; and she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the myrrh” (vv 37,38). This poor, despised woman supplied the lack on the part of the Pharisee, and in the Pharisee’s house. The Pharisee resented her presence. He complained about the woman and complained to the Lord that He allowed this woman to supply what was lacking on his part.
Now this Pharisee’s house is just a picture of what mere profession is in the world around us. We need to exhort one another and encourage one another to supply what is lacking. You think of the fulness of supply there was with this woman. You see the background of coldness, and such indifference to our Lord Jesus Christ in the world around us. But it is the privilege of the young people here and, in fact, all of us, to be set to supply what is lacking – how the Lord appreciates it! The very background of indifference, you might also say, was only a background to bring to light, and into focus the supply of this woman.
It says, “And turning to the woman he said to Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house; thou gavest me not water on my feet”. I understand it was a common custom in those days for a guest to receive water to wash his feet, but what a lack there was in the house! I trust there is not one of us here who would have part in this lack, lack of appreciation of our Lord Jesus Christ personally, lack of regard for the rights of our absent Lord. How we need to be on the line of supply! Think of the supply this woman brought with her, in a sense she herself was the supply.
It says in Luke’s account of it, “having taken an alabaster box of myrrh, and standing at his feet behind him weeping, began to wash his feet with tears”. It was an expression of herself; she did not bring water with her, it was in herself, it was what she was, “and wiped them with the hairs of her head”. She represented the supply of what was lacking in the Pharisee’s house. Let us regard ourselves as in the Pharisee’s house, and having the privilege of supplying what is lacking. Our Lord Jesus Christ appreciated every movement of this woman in the way of supply. It says, “Thou gavest me not a kiss, but she from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet”. This is the supply resident in one who was devoted to our Lord Jesus Christ. What a need there is in our day for increased devotion! “My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but she has anointed my feet with myrrh”. How the Lord appreciated the supplying of what was lacking. There was nothing in the Pharisee’s house but coldness, indifference, no regard for the Lord, but the woman comes in and brings in everything with her, brings in supplies of what was lacking. Indeed, the way Luke records it, he records the supplies before he records the lack on the part of the Pharisee, he brings in the woman and what the woman did. It is afterwards that the record tells us that the Pharisee did not do certain things. Therefore, Luke focuses on the supply, then afterward tells of the lack.
Well, let us all be encouraged to be on the line of supplying what is lacking. This is one who is devoted to the Lord, and by extension when the Lord says to her, “Thy faith has saved thee; go in peace”, she would be devoted to the furtherance of His interests here, in the time of His absence. Therefore, it was supplying what was lacking in this cold, indifferent atmosphere, which is the same as the time we are living in.
The addresses to the seven assemblies are often referred to and the last one is addressed to “the angel of the assembly in Laodicea” (Rom. 3: 14), and what marked that state was indifference, neither cold not hot. The Lord said to them, I would rather have you cold or hot. A genuine believer might get cold sometimes, but then they could be rekindled, but neither cold nor hot is the indifferent state which is nauseous to the Lord Himself! “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth”, the Lord says, Rom. 3: 16. But meantime, even in these conditions in which we are, there are persons who are supplying what is lacking, and let us be among them.
Now 1 Samuel 25 is a very interesting chapter. It is a chapter in which David makes a certain request from Nabal. It was a perfectly righteous request. In the history of David he did not make many requests but he does in this chapter, and Nabal insults Him. It was an occasion when according to the description of one of Nabal’s young men, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master; and he has insulted them” (v 14). It is a time when there is not only indifference to the Lord, but there is also insulting. There is the rejection for the overtures of grace. This is the kind of time we are living in – what a lack there was with Nabal involving insult to David’s men, therefore to David personally, and by application to our Lord Jesus Christ. We are living in a time when He is insulted, terrible things are going on, cults are arising of all kinds, men are becoming more brazen in their opposition, in their demeaning the Name of Jesus, of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are living in a time when our young people are being brought up in this kind of environment at school, in advertising and all that kind of thing, the books that are written, films are being shown that are derogatory to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is an insult.
As I said, David did not make many requests of persons, but he made a request of Nabal and it brought out this insult. David suggested perhaps that Nabal would show some response to himself. Nabal and his men had taken all the benefits of David’s protection. David’s men had been among them and nothing had been missed, as this young man had been saying, “They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the while we were with them feeding the sheep”. There are persons who are prepared to take all the benefits, but we are all challenged as to whether we are prepared to commit ourselves to the interests of our Lord Jesus Christ in a time when He is being insulted. What a lack there is!
But Abigail comes in, and she richly supplies what was lacking. You wonder where she got all these resources. How great were the supplies that Abigail was able to bring forward. It says, when Abigail was apprised of the situation, “Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves”. David asked for whatever comes to hand, “give, I pray thee, what thy hand may find to they servants, and to thy son David”. That is the request that David made. But Abigail, wherever she got them, made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two skin-bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred raisin-cakes, and two hundred fig-cakes, and laid them on asses. This is Abigail’s great, rich supply of what was lacking in the whole general situation. What a privilege we have, dear brethren. I would like to exhort and encourage everyone to supply what is lacking. No doubt Abigail felt the lack, felt the emptiness of any response from Nabal, and she had all this wealth of supply to fill up the lack that was there.
So she goes with the supplies to David, and then what a spirit she shows: she says, “Upon me, my lord, upon my let the iniquity be”. That is how she begins: she was morally apart from Nabal, and yet she took the blame for a situation where there was such lack. She took the responsibility for the lack, and then brought in all this rich supply. She felt the lack. We ought, as we go about this world and have contact with persons, and see what is going on, we ought in our hearts to feel the lack, and then be seen, as Abigail here, to supply what is lacking.
Think of a person like this discerning what is due to the Lord, discerning what is agreeable to Him. How important this matter of discernment is! It is what David called attention to in Abigail.
“Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me. And blessed by thy discernment, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming with bloodshed, and from avenging myself with mine own hand”. Even David was not true, was not acting according to the grace that really should have marked him, even he was dropping below the level. Abigail’s discernment was supplying even that lack, not only was she supplying the lack on the part of Nabal, but she was supplying some lack on the part of David. She was supplying that in her discernment, “blessed be thy discernment, and blessed be thou”.
Well, let us be set, dear brethren, to supply what is lacking, including discernment. There was no discernment with Nabal, and there was a lack of discernment with David. He is not in this matter a type of Christ, he is a type of the responsible element that falls below the level of the grace that marked the man in his normal life, but Abigail supplied that lack by way of her discernment.
In 1 Corinthians we find the expression used, “they have supplied what was lacking on your part”. Certain persons who were there supplied what was lacking on the part of the Corinthians. Corinth, as we know, was a local assembly in those days. We know the difficulties that were there in Corinth. There was a lack and there may be certain things lacking in our local settings. It would not be unusual for certain things to be lacking in a locality. There is always room for improvement in our localities; things could always be better. I do not know of any locality that could not be improved. Therefore, in most of our localities there would be some feature lacking which could be improved.
What do we do? Do we complain about it? Do we complain about the lack if we discern it, do we give up because of the lack? We need, dear brethren, to supply what is lacking! That is a greater test. Maybe we have sufficient understanding to see the lack and maybe we complain about it, but the great need is to supply what is lacking.
Paul at the end of his epistle calls attention to things that are lacking in this locality. Some grave things were lacking at Corinth. He calls attention to persons who were supplying what was lacking. The house of Stephanas would not be much thought of. No doubt the party leaders were more thought of in Corinth than these persons. They might have been obscure persons, but Paul calls attention to them. “Ye know the house of Stephanas that it is the first fruits of Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the saints for service”. Not exactly devoted for service to the saints. Service was not their objective, the saints were their objective, “they have devoted themselves to the saints for service, that ye should also be subject to such, and to every one joined in the work and labouring”. You see a household can be instrumental in supplying something that is lacking. Persons can do it, and a household can do it. These persons are models to be followed because they were supplying what was lacking.
I think we need to feel the lack in the world around us, whether it is in the form of indifference, or whether it is in the form of insult, and to set ourselves to supply that which is lacking. Whether it is at school, or at business – wherever it is – supply something, bring in some supply that is suited to the heart of Christ. So in our local settings let us all set ourselves to improve conditions on the principle of supply. Not simply criticism, not simply complaining about it, but on the principle of supply. May the Lord help us in it.
CHICAGO
4 August 1978
This address has recently come to light: it is still prophetic: ECB